15. Eli

Chapter 15

Eli

T hankfully, there had been a standard medical kit in the bathroom. It probably didn’t have jack shit in it, but it was better than nothing. The cut on her palm wasn’t big, but I still had to grit my teeth to look at how the skin was red and torn. I didn’t like that she’d hurt herself.

“You aren’t allergic to anything, right?” I asked, my hand hovering over hers with the antiseptic while I waited for her answer. I was pretty sure she wasn’t since I’d invaded her privacy a week ago and taken a thorough look into her medical records. She shook her head, her pale eyes looking somberly at me, holding me in place.

I had difficulty looking away and focusing on my task, but I forced myself. When I’d first scoped out the woman Pike was seeing and noticed Veronica, her eyes drew me first. You could tell that she was someone who had been through a profound experience with death—seen it up close. It was something that I could respect.

She was quiet, sitting on the edge of Victor’s desk, her legs dangling above the floor, those sexy legs of hers in those fuck me boots and stockings. I focused on her hand, wiping it carefully with the antiseptic wipe and then putting on the band-aid with unnecessarily slow, deliberate movements. The band-aid would be in the worst spot, but it couldn’t really be helped. Her skin was soft beneath my fingers, trembling slightly, and she didn’t pull away.

“What were you looking for?” I asked her as I watched the pulse in her throat. She swallowed hard and tried to come up with a lie.

“Nothing much.” She shrugged, her pale shoulder rising like a bird’s wing, the bones shifting delicately under her t-shirt, the collarbone looking too close to the surface of her alabaster skin. “He threatened my sister.” That wasn’t a lie, but I could see when she decided to deflect that she was going all in because she met my eyes when she did it. “I am just looking to understand why he was here.” She added a shrug for effect .

“Victor did threaten your sister,” I agreed. “I killed him for it.” Veronica didn’t flinch or look away, which turned me the fuck on. It was common for people to be uncomfortable around me, but I often made them uneasy if they were smart. Generally, I enjoyed the sense of power this gave me. If they were afraid, that meant I was in control, which I liked. This was different. She allowed a sense of connection, which was new for me.

“He wasn’t there for Natasha, my little goddess.” I brushed a finger over her cheekbone, debating what to tell her, and then decided on the truth. “Victor was there for you in the end.” Ultimately, he’d only come to the house for one reason, and that was for the girl in front of me—the girl who had captured my attention.

He’d gone too far coming to Morinrock. I didn’t care that he’d gone through my backlist and killed my foster care placements — the abusive fucks, but he’d had my brother on that list. I wouldn’t have cared about that at one time, but things changed once I’d seen my brother.

Pike was one of those memories that had been held in limbo, sort of like … what the fuck were those butterfly things? A cocoon? Yeah, one of those. I’d remembered my brother for years as if he were crystallized and immortalized, not as if he were real. I’d been young when we’d been separated. There had been years where his memory was all that kept me alive, months that I thought he’d rescue me, and years I’d blamed him. Even now, I had a hard time believing he was real.

A child’s mind was funny, and time had a way of tricking you. Trauma was like an elastic band snapping you back and forth like a rubber ball.

“What?” Veronica’s voice startled me. “What do you mean he was there for me.” Anger infused her eyes, and she moved to wiggle off the desk. I scooted closer and settled my arms on either side of her, close enough that her gardenia scent floated my way. It was funny that she thought she could get away.

“That’s right. He was there for you, Veronica. Victor was looking to take out his rival.” It still made my blood run cold that he had been able to breach the house. I’d even warned my brother, but he hadn’t made a difference. It made me a little angry that Pike hadn’t taken more precautions.

The room was too still, too thick, with everything unspoken between us, but I didn’t mind. I’d grown used to silence—relished it, even .

I glanced up, catching her eyes on me—wide, uncertain, and far too trusting for her own good. She didn’t know me. Not really. But here she was, letting me care for her despite everything she knew. If I had my way, I’d always be the one taking care of her. I tried to anchor myself in the chair, but she was so close, the plastic of the cheap office chair beneath me and filtered sunlight hazy around me. It was all I could not to leap at her, wrap her in my arms, and bury myself in her.

“A rival?” Her eyes looked to me in question, and her nose wrinkled in confusion. “Look. I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but I need to get back home. My sister will be looking for me.”

“You can go in a minute, but I want one thing clear, Veronica,” I said quietly, the words slipping out, low and direct. I felt her breath catch, the pulse in her wrist fluttering against my palm.

“What?”

“This.” I tightened my hand imperceptibly. “This is happening, little liar.”

She hesitated, her brow furrowing in confusion. “I don’t even know you.” Her voice was soft, but the edge of it cracked with something else—fear, curiosity, maybe a mix of both. “You can’t just decide something like that.”

I smirked, letting my eyes flick back to hers. “I can do anything I want,” I said stubbornly. “I’d bet that you know lots of stuff about me. I’d say that you were poking your nose into things you shouldn’t already. Everything you could find.”

There was no way that during Victor’s rampage in Morinrock, Veronica wasn’t digging into Pike’s past. Pike’s past included me and all the baggage that followed.

“Tell me what you know,” I prodded, tucking a curl behind her ear, unable to keep my hands off her a second longer and brushing her cheek as I did so. The tell-tale inhale of her breath as my fingers brushed against the smoothness of her cheek could have been fear, but I could almost smell her arousal, sense the clenching of her thighs.

“I know that your parents died in a car accident when you were little. You were put into foster care together, and Lonnie Kent was your first placement, but there were three others. You were both sent back to Kent in the end. That was where you supposedly drowned in his pond at five, and Pike was sent to another home here in Arizona.”

Her eyes stayed on mine as she recited her little facts, but her mouth tightened each time she said Kent’s name. Her fingers twisted together in her lap.

“What else do you know?” I prompted. She knew more, and I wanted her to say it.

“You were both abused. There were mentions in reports that you had issues with mental health,” she said quietly. “Tearing eyes out of magazines and poking them out of dolls and stuff. You and Pike were denied placements because of it. That’s all I could find.”

“Seems like a lot.”

“Doesn’t seem like much,” she mumbled.

Veronica was smart. Smart enough to know that I wasn’t just some mystery she could solve all at once. I wasn’t Victor or Pike. I was something else entirely, something she couldn’t place yet. And that’s what drew her in—the unknown—the mystery.

She shifted on the desk, watching me carefully as if trying to understand what I was thinking and wanted.

“I’m not sure this is smart,” she admitted finally, her voice barely above a whisper. “Whatever this is,” she added. She looked scared and a little flushed.

Good. She should be scared. I was dangerous, and she knew it. But that fear—that tiny flicker of uncertainty—didn’t stop her from being here and letting me close. I’d watched her long enough to know she wasn’t like anyone else. She was going to be reckless. And she would like it.

“That’s not going to stop me,” I said, pushing my thumb over the meaty part of her thigh where the stocking met skin. The peachy softness was like silk. “You haven’t lived yet, Veronica.” I leaned a little closer.

Her breath hitched again, and she looked away, her hair falling across her face as if it could shield her from what was happening between us. But it couldn’t.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she whispered, more to herself than to me, as I caressed her slowly.

I stood, moving slowly until I was right in front of her, close enough that her legs brushed against mine, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from her skin. She stayed still, her body tense but not pulling back, her eyes dilating with unmistakable desire .

“I’m going to change your mind,” I said, my voice low and dark, teasing the edges of her resolve. “Don’t doubt it.” Bending low, I licked along her throat, laving my tongue against her skin until I reached her earlobe — that small piece of flesh had beckoned me.

Her whimper sounded against the side of my cheek, music to my ears. This wasn’t pain or fear; this was desire. My little moon goddess wanted me. Pulling the flesh into my mouth, I sucked it and rolled it in my mouth, imagining it was her clit. God, I could explode in my pants right now.

Pulling back from her, I eyed her critically. Her eyes were glazed, her chest heaved, and her throat was flushed. I’d barely touched her — yet.

“I’ll see you later, angel. Drive safe.” Forcing myself, I walked away without a glance.